


Weightless

by voices_in_my_head



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: AU - older setting, Midorima has the flu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 21:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3543827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Pretty much everything hurt."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weightless

Shintaro, as a doctor, was perfectly capable of knowing when he was sick or not. Unfortunately, also as a doctor, he usually ignored it until it was too late. If he didn't feel horribly, he would get up and start writing an article on why doctors did that. Not that he'd publish it, since he was aware that his fever was making him a bit... loopy. His thoughts were more disperse, not like he was high or anything of the sort, just a little bit more open. Not to mention the physical pain he was in. Pretty much everything hurt.

It had started the afternoon before, when he'd still been in the hospital. His eyes had started hurting but he'd just blamed it on having spent too many hours awake. Then it was his throat that had started aching, and so he had decided to take a pill once he'd gotten home. Except he'd gotten home at almost midnight, and by that point everything he'd wanted had been his bed, so he'd forgotten about the pill. He'd regretted it four hours later when he'd woken up, this time not just hurting from his throat and eyes, but from his ears as well as having some trouble breathing. Finally, he'd taken the promised pill but it had been too little, too late.

When his alarm clock had rang he had still been feeling horribly, and while once in a while he would have just gotten up and gone on with his day, like he'd done many times when he'd been a student, he was aware he could no longer do that. He was a doctor; operating almost everyday on people, and just one mistake could cost them their lives. So, knowing there was a high probably of him making a mistake that day (and possible the next) he had called in sick to the hospital.

Then he'd drank some tea, taken another pill and had gone back to bed, where he'd spent over two hours just rolling around, trying to fall back asleep and failing. Finally, he had gone to the living room, where he had put on an audio book, he wasn't even sure of what exactly. It had been a present from his sister, who had said that it might come in handy one day. She hadn't been wrong.

The book had lulled him to sleep, and he'd only risen with the sound of his phone alerting to a new text message.

It had been four pm by then and after rubbing his eyes, which were still hurting, he'd opened the text.

“Hey, wanna meet?” Had just been sent by Aomine.

“No. I have the flu,” he'd texted back and after several seconds of not getting a text back, he'd put the phone back on the coffee table.

He didn't even know why he'd been expecting an answer. It wasn't like he and Aomine were dating. They had started a sexual relationship almost a year before, using each other just for a physical release and while they'd started spending more time around each other afterwards, eating or just talking, a couple of months before, it still didn't change the fact that they only met for sex.

It was an arrangement that Shintaro liked and had no desire to change. Usually, anyway. He was growing older, he was now thirty four and he wouldn't be opposed to finding a partner to share his life with. Then again, with the schedule he lived with, it seemed unlikely he'd find that someone anytime soon. What he had with Aomine was the longest relationship he'd had in years, which was a bit sad when you thought about it.

He forced himself away from those thoughts and got up to go to the kitchen. He hadn't eaten anything aside from some cookies in the morning. While he wasn't feeling that hungry, he knew he had to keep some energy.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been thinking he'd be spending anytime home that week and so his kitchen was empty, aside some long-dated goods and tea. He could make some pasta... but just the thought of doing that made him want to sit down. Perhaps he was a bit more sick than he'd first believed. It seemed highly unlikely he'd be going to the hospital the next day. Oh well, it wasn't like he hadn't some vacation days to take.

He was sitting back on the couch, wondering if he should order a soup from some take-away place when his doorbell rang. He looked at the door, but didn't immediately get up. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd had someone over.

The doorbell rang a second time, this time a bit more insistently. With a sigh, he got up and went to open it. He hoped it wasn't a neighbour wanting something.

Surprisingly, it was Aomine standing there, wearing casual clothes and holding a plastic bag on both hands.

“What are you doing here?” Shintaro asked. He was pretty sure he had sent the correct message.

“You said you were sick, so here,” he pushed whatever was in the bag into Shintaro's hands. With a frown he looked in. It was a Tupperware. “It's chicken soup. I didn't think you'd cook some, so...” Aomine ran a hand through his neck, just like he'd done as a teenager.

“Thank you,” Shintaro answered. He might be confused, but that didn't stop him from being courteous to his guest. A guest that he'd received wearing a fluffy pyjama and his slippers that had panda faces. “Come in,” he said because Aomine had started shifting his weight from one foot to another and if he had wanted to leave, then he would have already done it. Shintaro didn't wait for him to answer, he just turned around and went to the kitchen.

“Hey, wait,” Aomine called once he'd closed the door and Shintaro turned around with a raised eyebrow. Aomine started walking towards him, “I'll heat up the soup. You just sit down,” and with that he took the container from his hands.

Shintaro didn't see a reason to argue, so he did as he was told and went back to the sofa, wrapping himself in a blanket. He'd spent the day changing between being cold and being hot. Right now he was feeling cold. A hot soup was just what he needed.

He could hear Aomine opening and closing some cabinets, which wasn't surprising, since the kitchen had never been a place Aomine had had a reason to see. Well, he'd been in it once, but there hadn't been any cooking happening at the moment.

Shintaro didn't know how many minutes passed, but suddenly Aomine was coming back holding a bowl in one hand and a cup in the other. “Here,” he said, and passed the bowl to Shintaro, putting the cup on the coffee table.

“Thank you,” Shintaro said and then started eating. “It's delicious,” he said after some spoonfuls, not just because it was true but also because the silence was starting to grow a bit uncomfortable.

“Really?” Aomine was back at scratching his neck and was that a blush on his cheeks? “It's been a while since I've cooked one.”

“You cooked this?” Shintaro couldn't help but to sound surprised, maybe even a bit shocked. Sure, Aomine had made breakfast for them once or twice, but it had always been simple stuff, like toasts.

“Yeah. We can't all just live on take-outs,” there was definitely some judgement there. Shintaro would have defended himself if 1) it wasn't the truth and 2) he hadn't been tired. So he just went back to eating. It wasn't long before he was done and he couldn't help but to look longingly at the empty bowl. It really had been a while since he'd eaten such a homey soup, or really any homey meal.

“There's more in the fridge. But you probably shouldn't eat more, not if you haven't during the day.”

Shintaro got ready to ask “who are you? The doctor?” but since he had no desire to start an argument he simply went with, “how do you know I haven't eaten?” He might have sounded just a little bit petulant.

Aomine raised an eyebrow at him before he started talking. “First of all, I didn't see any dishes on the kitchen and sure you could have washed them, but who washes dishes when they're sick? And secondly, I know you. You barely cook when you're healthy, much less when you're sick.”

Shintaro looked shocked at that.

“Cop, remember?” Aomine asked with a little smile and Shintaro just nodded. Right, cop. They almost never talked of their jobs, so it was easy to forget what Aomine did, or just how good he was at it. He was no longer a teenager with no patience or will to do anything.

Shintaro put down the bowl and picked up the tea. It was hot, making his hands warm. He took a sip. It was good, just a small taste of sugar. He looked sideways at Aomine, trying to remember if he'd ever had tea in the company of the other.

Aomine just looked back at him.

Once he was done with the tea, he put it besides the bowl. He wasn't sure where to go from there. Aomine was still just looking at him, but in a relaxed matter, like he wasn't expecting anything. Like he didn't want anything.

“Why are you here?” Shintaro asked and the fact that Aomine didn't immediately answer with “to give you soup” told him he knew exactly what he meant. “Wait, don't answer. Whatever you say is going to lead to talking and my throat hurts. As do my eyes, my nose, my ears, my brain, my body... the only thing not hurting is my penis,” Aomine's eyebrows went up at that and Shintaro's eyes bulged. He hadn't been meaning to say that last part.

“How many pills have you taken?”

“It's not the pills, it's the fever, okay? And that wasn't an invitation.”

“You're sick, of course it wasn't an invitation.”

Shintaro wanted to say “then why are you here?” but once again, that was a question that would lead to talking, maybe a too honest conversation and sure, maybe they'd been heading that way for some weeks but Shintaro hadn't been lying when he'd said his head hurt. He didn't want to talk.

And so, deciding he could blame it on the fever later, he laid down until his head was resting on Aomine's lap. Aomine's hand went to his hair immediately, petting it and scratching and that felt really good.

Deciding that he could use this fever thing as an excuse some more, he called for the other's attention, “Aomine?”

“Hm?” Was Aomine's only answer.

“You make me happy,” he said and Aomine's hand stilled, but for less than a second, then it was back at moving.

“You make me happy too,” Aomine replied and his voice sounded just a bit more throaty than usual. Then he kissed Shintaro's hair, “go to sleep.”

Now that sounded like the perfect advice to follow, and so Shintaro dropped his eyelids, knowing that Aomine would be there when he woke up, and if he wasn't, then at least there would be a paper with an explanation on it. Shintaro doubted things would go back to how they'd been going, but he couldn't find it in himself to be against that change. He had been wanting for a partner, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I spent the day sick and I probably shouldn't be on the pc but you know, what better thing to make me healthier than writing my favourite character feeling like I do and being taken care of?


End file.
